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Most Affordable Way to Get in to Vistana w/Ability to [exchange] Weeks

CPNY

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Fumny..6 mos later I see this reply! I was only talking about no need to pay that much. Units can be had all over for cheap. My angle is only SOs and zero intention of going to my " home" resort. I went with the low MF and cheap buy in angle. I needed 132K to get myself 3 weeks at WSJ. 3 weeks will cost me about 2300 a year in MFs. Again just was telling OG poster that units can be cheaply had. Definately am not saavy enough yet to comment on other ownership angels! Btw was able to obtain 132K SOs for about 700$..Thats probably 650$ more than I needed to pay!
Enjoy those vacations!!

Where did you buy? 132K SO for 700 with 2300 MF?
 

carpie99

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Fumny..6 mos later I see this reply! I was only talking about no need to pay that much. Units can be had all over for cheap. My angle is only SOs and zero intention of going to my " home" resort. I went with the low MF and cheap buy in angle. I needed 132K to get myself 3 weeks at WSJ. 3 weeks will cost me about 2300 a year in MFs. Again just was telling OG poster that units can be cheaply had. Definately am not saavy enough yet to comment on other ownership angels! Btw was able to obtain 132K SOs for about 700$..Thats probably 650$ more than I needed to pay!
Enjoy those vacations!!

When are you planning on using these options at WSJ ... I am seeing nearly zero availability? Major off-season at 8 month mark?

$700 is a great price ... 3 bedrooms are rare and the SVV prime units are getting alot of activity ... last two 95,700 2 bedroom lockoffs went for $1800 and $2400 on ebay and the two on redweek both just sold for $2000. 3 of the 3 bedrooms are on Redweek for $5-6000.
 

CPNY

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When are you planning on using these options at WSJ ... I am seeing nearly zero availability? Major off-season at 8 month mark?

$700 is a great price ... 3 bedrooms are rare and the SVV prime units are getting alot of activity ... last two 95,700 2 bedroom lockoffs went for $1800 and $2400 on ebay and the two on redweek both just sold for $2000. 3 of the 3 bedrooms are on Redweek for $5-6000.
Those 3 bedrooms have been around for a bit. I actually picked up 95,700 SVV KW two years ago for $1000. In escrow for another SVV KW Every other year worth 95,700 for $500. Giving away my HRA, found a taker today actually. By Monday I hope to be in contract to sell and buy. I hope the every other year passes ROFR. Seems like Marriott May exercise that.
 

CPNY

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dioxide45

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The only drawback to those 95,700 2BR LO weeks is that they have a higher than optimal MF to SO ratio. The 2BR units are better for SO generators.
 

CPNY

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T
The only drawback to those 95,700 2BR LO weeks is that they have a higher than optimal MF to SO ratio. The 2BR units are better for SO generators.
Very true, when i combine them I’ll get 29,400 more star options than with 2 2 bedrooms. The extra MF I pay is approx 500 more. That 29k SO will go toward a one bedroom at the harborside for my 5 nights Labor Day week trip I usually that’s where my head was at. Plus I wanted enough options for a 2 bedroom lockout at certain resorts like harborside or a premium one bedroom oceanfront in Maui.
 

Tucsonadventurer

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The general consensus on here in recent times is if you want e.g. Maui then the prime way to avoid disappointment is to buy Maui. For around $11K and $2.7K/year you can pick up a resale of an annual 2BR, be able to reserve at 12 months and have a very good chance of renting it out if you don't use it. Probably like many on here I can only dream that I'd picked mine up at such a price :(
We have always been able to get into. Maui so far at 8 mos. We have gone in May June, and Jan so far. We don't expect to get in in July or holidays. We would rather do this than pay Hawaii maintenance fees. If flexible it can be done but again not sure if it will continue when Marriott makes changes. At that point we will revise our strategy
 

momeason

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The Star option program can be changed at any moment and inventory may not be very high. I have never tried to buy for a specific resort. Vistana has limited resorts available. IF you want summer or holiday weeks I am not sure timeshare ownership is a great option. I have been happy with my prior exchanges using my SDO, but I am very glad that I did not invest very much. We are fairly flexible with dates and seasons.
My husband has recently been diagnosed with serious back problems which will likely get worse. If we decide to get out of timesharing, I am fairly sure we could sell for what we paid or give it away.
My point is do not expect too much and you will not be disappointed. The program is not nearly as good as any salesman tells you it is. It takes work to make the program work for you and then it might change.
 

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Hi. I just finished a VRBO rental at the Westin Kaanapali and loved it. We went to the presentation and love the fact that you can trade your options to Bonvoy points. We are titanium elite with Bonvoy so that will come in handy. That said, the 60k price tag for 148100 options annually was no go for me. I saw some on the resale market and would like some help...

1) if I buy less options here, and then buy options at another mandatory resort, can I combine the options, and still be able to book 8-12 months in advance? I see a lot of deals at the other resorts so I’m hoping to save a few bucks
2) if I buy from the resale market, can I still trade for Bonvoy points? Is there a cost?
3) is there something that I’m missing through the resale market?
 

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1) if I buy less options here, and then buy options at another mandatory resort, can I combine the options, and still be able to book 8-12 months in advance? I see a lot of deals at the other resorts so I’m hoping to save a few bucks



2) if I buy from the resale market, can I still trade for Bonvoy points? Is there a cost?
3) is there something that I’m missing through the resale market?[/QUOTE]
 

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1) if I buy less options here, and then buy options at another mandatory resort, can I combine the options, and still be able to book 8-12 months in advance? I see a lot of deals at the other resorts so I’m hoping to save a few bucks - NO if you combine points from other resorts than you can only book after 8 months

2) if I buy from the resale market, can I still trade for Bonvoy points? Is there a cost? - NO you can't

3) is there something that I’m missing through the resale market?[/QUOTE] - Only thing missing is you won't be able to convert to Bonvoy points ... which is basically the worst thing you could do with Hawaii StarOptions anyway so don't do it
 

Tucsonadventurer

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Hi. I just finished a VRBO rental at the Westin Kaanapali and loved it. We went to the presentation and love the fact that you can trade your options to Bonvoy points. We are titanium elite with Bonvoy so that will come in handy. That said, the 60k price tag for 148100 options annually was no go for me. I saw some on the resale market and would like some help...

1) if I buy less options here, and then buy options at another mandatory resort, can I combine the options, and still be able to book 8-12 months in advance? I see a lot of deals at the other resorts so I’m hoping to save a few bucks
2) if I buy from the resale market, can I still trade for Bonvoy points? Is there a cost?
3) is there something that I’m missing through the resale market?
1. No if you buy elsewhere you exchange at 8 months. You can combine SOs but only at 8 months out. Also only 7 resorts in the system allow you to exchange internally (read the stickies at the top) 2. No If you buy resale you cannot use hotel points. It is not a good value anyways.
 

controller1

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Hi. I just finished a VRBO rental at the Westin Kaanapali and loved it. We went to the presentation and love the fact that you can trade your options to Bonvoy points. We are titanium elite with Bonvoy so that will come in handy. That said, the 60k price tag for 148100 options annually was no go for me. I saw some on the resale market and would like some help...

1) if I buy less options here, and then buy options at another mandatory resort, can I combine the options, and still be able to book 8-12 months in advance? I see a lot of deals at the other resorts so I’m hoping to save a few bucks

Are they selling you 148,100 options in Westin Flex or are they wanting to sell you a 2-BR lockoff week which equates to 148,100 StarOptions? There is a difference because if they are selling you Westin Flex, there is no mandatory about it. With that said, the other answers you have received are correct.
 

CPNY

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Hi. I just finished a VRBO rental at the Westin Kaanapali and loved it. We went to the presentation and love the fact that you can trade your options to Bonvoy points. We are titanium elite with Bonvoy so that will come in handy. That said, the 60k price tag for 148100 options annually was no go for me. I saw some on the resale market and would like some help...

1) if I buy less options here, and then buy options at another mandatory resort, can I combine the options, and still be able to book 8-12 months in advance? I see a lot of deals at the other resorts so I’m hoping to save a few bucks
2) if I buy from the resale market, can I still trade for Bonvoy points? Is there a cost?
3) is there something that I’m missing through the resale market?

If you’re going to buy, you have two options. 1 buy a mandatory deed. Kaanapali is mandatory. However you’ll be paying dearly for your maint fees., or 2 buy a developer purchase

2 if you buy resale, no you cannot trade for bonvoy points unless you retro the resale back in the network you’re already a member of. You would have to buy a developer purchase. Not worth it imo just to convert to bonvoy points.

3. Buy a 2 bedroom in kierland for 148k star options. You’ll pay around 12K buy In but your maint fees will be around 1,500.

If you really want to go back to Kaanapali, think about what time of year you want to go and how big of a room you’ll need. I’ve been able to get oceanfront premium one bedrooms in the spring at 8 month period at midnight the two years in a row I tried. It’s a lower time of the year, just after whale season and post spring break but before summer vacations. If you wanted to go to Hawaii every year and you want a prime season and a specific room type (OF) then buy into Kaanapali and you’ll have 12 month priority.

I’m sure it’s been answered, but you can’t combine options from two resorts until the 8 month mark.
 

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1) if I buy less options here, and then buy options at another mandatory resort, can I combine the options, and still be able to book 8-12 months in advance? I see a lot of deals at the other resorts so I’m hoping to save a few bucks
No, you cannot combine homeoptions to book at 8-12 months. You can only book what type room, view, season and location of what you own.

2) if I buy from the resale market, can I still trade for Bonvoy points? Is there a cost?
No, you can't trade for Bonvoy points, but you don't need Bonvoy points if you are in timeshare. If you retro resale, i believe there is a $99 fee to convert to Bonvoy points. Usually the point ratio of conversion is not worth the MF you pay.

3) is there something that I’m missing through the resale market?
Buy where you want to go. If you like Ka'anapali like I do, just buy WKORV or WKORVN. It might be expensive upfront right now, but it worthes the money when you know the availability is there at 12 months and guarantees the view, and also removed all the hassle of trading game via VSN or Interval. However, if you are ok with offseason, you can consider to buy a cheaper mandatory resort. I would not take risk of westin kierland for $12k now until Marriott announces what they will do with VSN. There is a possibility they might devalue the exchange value in westin kierland. It's just my opinion.
 
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CPNY

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1) if I buy less options here, and then buy options at another mandatory resort, can I combine the options, and still be able to book 8-12 months in advance? I see a lot of deals at the other resorts so I’m hoping to save a few bucks
No, you cannot combine homeoptions to book at 8-12 months. You can only book what type room, view, season and location of what you own.

2) if I buy from the resale market, can I still trade for Bonvoy points? Is there a cost?
No, you can't trade for Bonvoy points, but you don't need Bonvoy points if you are in timeshare. If you retro resale, i believe there is a $99 fee to convert to Bonvoy points. Usually the point ratio of conversion is not worth the MF you pay.

3) is there something that I’m missing through the resale market?
Buy where you want to go. If you like Ka'anapali like I do, just buy WKORV or WKORVN. It might be expensive upfront right now, but it worthes the money when you know the availability is there at 12 months and guarantees the view, and also removed all the hassle of trading game via VSN or Interval. However, if you are ok with offseason, you can consider to buy a cheaper mandatory resort. I would not take risk of westin kierland for $12k now until Marriott announces what they will do with VSN. There is a possibility they might devalue the exchange value in westin kierland.

To your point about what Marriott will do, you won’t have to worry about the trading game with VSN/II or whatever new program Marriott rolls out. I got out of harborside resort, if my SVV won’t get me back there the way it does now, I’ll drastically cut down on my ownerships and just rent cheap weeks on redweek or the marketplace. But very true, we have no idea what Marriott will do. So, buying the resort where they want to go is probably the best thing to do. Especially for Kaanapali. That will be a coveted resort I imagine.
 

CalGalTraveler

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There is a very cogent discussion on another thread about the challenges MVC will have with valuing the Desert weeks (AZ/CA) compared to the MVC points equivalents for the same location (see below).This may result in the ability to continue to trade WKV/SDO weeks in SVN to get Maui for current SO value but devaluing such value in the new MVC trust compared to Maui. Significant Maui SO inventory availability may ultimately shift to the MVC points program if they make very attractive offers to Maui Owners to enroll to build that trust. This means that there is lower risk with SVV (Key West, Bella) because of lower buy-in but who knows what they will charge to enroll and they could also experience a decline of inventory in SVN over time if attractive offers are made to St. John, Maui, Harborside owners. Of course all speculation at this point.

This poses several bigger problems to MVC though:
...

2) for SVN weeks owners, they offer an option to enroll in the DC with your week being set at a fixed DC point value (completely unrelated to the SVN StarOptions value and based closer to similar MVC resort values), basically the same as what they did with MVC weeks owners when they launched the program. Yes, weeks owners will see a mismatch between the value ascribed compared to (1) above, but I think MVC could explain it away. Likely more in demand weeks/resorts (Maui. ski weeks...etc) will end up with a value higher than the fixed rate above and less in demand weeks/resorts (Orlando, mud weeks...etc) will end up with a value lower than the fixed rate above. For non-trust resorts, they don't have a true way to compare...and most of these are likely to be in demand resorts which would get a decent DC point value offered.

I think the most marginalized in the above approach would be Platinum desert week owners (both CA and AZ) who would likely not receive nearly the same rate of DC points as Platinum Maui week owners (where in SVN they are on par). However, this may be as good as can get and I suspect it marginalizes the smallest group of SVN owners. MVC had to contend with some of the same concerns when they launched the DC program as many low value week owners were regularly getting high value trades in II. While there was a lot of smoke the first year or so, over time things have settled down and most MVC owners have come to find value in the DC program.

Taken together, this approach also helps minimize the inherent mismatch in the SVN trusts. If they get enough weeks owners on board, the trusts stay a relatively small portion of the overall DC-SVN interaction and (2) above pulls the whole system closer to being on par with relative MVC resort DC point values.



I think the past is in the past and actual sales prices for weeks played very little into how DC point values were set at launch....and again, at worst this marginalizes the Platinum desert weeks owners which is a relatively small group when looking at SVN as a whole. No solution is going to make everyone happy, and I suspect this is the group that will lose out. As the systems mingle I don't think it's reasonable for WKV Platinum week owners to expect things will always stay on par and that their weeks will always be as valuable as a Maui week. I suspect they will continue to have SVN exchanges as an option to try to get those Maui weeks (but even there, this will become increasingly difficult over time if Maui week owners actually use DC points in any given year - thus taking the week out of the SVN pool that year).

ONE silver lining in all of this that I hope is in MVC's mind and may provide a tiny buffer. The one clear advantage SVN desert weeks (and most SVN mainland resort weeks) has over similarly situated MVC properties is that our properties lock-off into two 1-bedrooms. This should justify a bit of a premium in DC point value over MVC resorts and narrow the mismatch a bit.
 
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